


The Ministry of Time

by ziazippy5379



Category: Leverage
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Multifandom Cameos, So Many Cameos, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-29
Updated: 2019-11-29
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:33:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 6,012
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21599227
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ziazippy5379/pseuds/ziazippy5379
Summary: The Ministry of Time gave Team LV3 a new technology to test. Some things went very wrong. And now they need a computer specialist.
Comments: 25
Kudos: 23
Collections: Leverage Reverse Bang 2019





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [The Ministry of Time](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21608791) by [benjaminrussell](https://archiveofourown.org/users/benjaminrussell/pseuds/benjaminrussell). 



> This was written for the 2019 Leverage Reverse Big Bang with the art by banjaminrussel.
> 
> Thanks to yourozness for betaing this for me!
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

The soldier of the second crusade was slated to be executed. He was a good man who had been placed under the control of a corrupt captain. He had followed that man’s orders but when he tried to leave his death was ordered.

His skills were noted. His nature was analyzed. His adaptability was tested. It was decided that he would be an acceptable agent.

They sent a team to extract him. They went in as guards and gave him the option to join the ministry. He thought they were angels giving him a second chance to be good. Correcting him would take too long so they left that for later. The soldier came with the agents.

The soldier was trained for his new job fixing time. He took to it even faster than expected. At the end of his training, he was given the same option as all new agents to pick a new name. He chose to.

He picked Eliot Spencer.

\---

She was a spy serving her country in the cold war against the Russians. She was a thief who had been caught and given the choice between becoming a spy or life in prison. She chose to be a spy. Because she could still be a thief.

She was under observation as a possible agent. She was a good candidate in most respects but her loyalties were unpredictable.

The observing agents took their notes and headed back to the door to the ministry. She had noticed them watching and followed them through. She slipped in unnoticed.

When she was eventually found it was decided to let her remain as an agent since removing such a large portion of time could be harmful. She was placed in training.

The only name she ever claimed was Parker.

\---

The detective was from London in the year 1863. His life had fallen to shambles and he was drunk on the street more often than not. This had become a common occurrence for the detective. His son had gotten sick and everything the doctors had tried failed. The boy had died. The detective drank as a result. His wife had gone to her family out in the country. So the detective fell into his bottle more every night.

There was no possible reason for the detective to have been chosen for the ministry. But due to some clerical mishap, he was offered a job and in the depths of his drunkenness chose to accept. His training went as well to be expected but in a surprisingly short amount of time, he came to lead his own team.

He kept his name of Nathan Ford.

\---

The agency is not sure where or when the woman came from. She walked into the offices one day with enough knowledge that everyone assumed she was someone else's trainee. By the time they realized she was not supposed to be there, she had proven her usefulness. So the ministry decided to allow her to stay.

She chose the name, Sophie Devereaux.


	2. Chapter 1

The team had a central office that acted more as a meeting room. None of them, baring Nate, could do much of their work while the others were around. Each of them had their own reasoning but it came down to the matter that if anyone were to walk into Team LV3’s office they would only find the team leader. As a part of any other team, Nate would not be considered for that position but the rest needed a unique mind to contain them.

Contain was the right word for this team. There was no control when it came to Parker and Sophie, only a chance to give them direction. Eliot could be controlled to a certain extent but his past had left its mark and he preferred to be on equal footing with his team. And they all preferred to work in private. Especially when it came to paperwork.

So their team office had only one desk along with a large meeting table that acted as the team desk when they were planning their cases.

What this meant was Team LV3 got the most unique cases. And they were the guinea pigs for certain new advancements within The Ministry.

Which meant than Nate was not surprised when he walked in one day to find that there was a new table (desk? It had a desk chair but lacked the drawers of a proper desk) sitting along one wall of the office. There was a device resting upon it that Nate believed was called a computer. None of his team used them but others in The Ministry did. Most agents always remained most comfortable using the technology and means of their home time. No member of Team LV3 came from the age of computers (except for the possibility of Sophie).

Nate assumed that with this addition they would be receiving a member that used them. But when he read the morning correspondence he learned this was not the case. They were being given the computer as a test for controlling the team’s doors. They had been among the first teams to receive doors that had changeable destinations and now they were testing new control methods on them. Which would lead to them having to clean up the inevitable mess from the bugs R&D had left behind.

At least this time R&D had left an instruction manual.

Not that it would really be enough. Maybe the team as a whole would be able to not screw up the whole thing and make the problem worse than when they began. But their track record said otherwise (technology past the mid-twentieth century did not get along with LV3, no matter the instructions).

After sending messages out to his agents, Nate sat down to read the manual (one of several copies) while he waited for them to arrive. There was a lot of information that he did not understand. So, he had to get reference books out. There was a stack growing on his desk when the first of the agents arrived.

As was typical, Eliot was the first to arrive (he was the one that checked for messages regularly). He was in his customary wardrobe of a tunic and leggings (over his time at the ministry he had done away with the many layers of underwear, but he would only go so far).

He saw the pile of books and raised an eyebrow.

“New piece of tech,” Nate told him.

With a nod, Eliot took another copy of the manual and began to read. They sat mostly in silence (occasionally asking to be handed a reference) while waiting for the others.

The next to arrive was Parker (wearing a skin-tight black shirt and pants as she was prone to). Neither of them heard or saw her enter. But she was there already holding a copy of the manual with evidence she had had it for a while. So, Nate didn’t stop her when she went to start looking at the computer.

It was late morning when Sophie arrived (in an outfit that could Nate could only assume was from the 1980s). She walked in with the usual flair that was her style. She took in the scene of Nate and Eliot reading manuals and Parker staring at the computer (occasionally hitting a button). Instead of grabbing another manual she took Nate’s notes and began to read them.

\---

“I think I’ve learned as much as I'm going to from this,” Nate said standing.

It was late afternoon and he had gone through the manual twice taking notes and thought he was ready to try out the real thing. He headed towards Parker who was still sitting at the computer. Sophie and Eliot followed him over.

“I’m as ready as I’m going to be,” Eliot said.

“It doesn’t seem too far out of our range,” said Sophie.

\---

It was very far out of their range. They had tried to center their doors on a few different periods, but to no avail (or so they had thought). But when they had given up to go back to the manuals they saw how wrong things had gone. Their inbox had a stack of time-fixes that needed to happen. All of them were based in the periods that LV3 had tried to open doors to.

“Well then,” Nate said. “Any ideas?”

“Find someone who can use this blasted thing,” Sophie snapped. She was the one who seemed the most frustrated by the whole fiasco.

“Call tech support,” said Eliot.

“If we wait for tech support it will take months,” Parker pitched in from her perch on the back of her chair.

“You have a better idea?” Eliot said back.

“We go get someone,” she said.

“From where?” Nate asked suspiciously.

“Well, it’s a twenty-first century computer, so there.”

“New agents take longer than tech support,” Eliot said.

“LB1 is out for the next week. And they don’t get experiments,” Sophie said. “They won’t mind if we borrow one of their doors.”

Before Nate had even said a word he knew he had lost to them. They were going to do this whether he helped or not. And compared to some incidents (WH13’s office being used as an aquarium came to mind) this would be minor.

\---

An hour later (and one break-in to personnel) they met at LB1’s office. Everyone but Parker had needed to get into clothes that would blend in with the twenty-first century. So Parker had gone to get the file on their target by herself. 

Parker had already gotten the door to the office open (Nate was not going to ask how) when the rest of them got there. So, they headed in and Eliot went to set a door to their target location that Parker read out to him. He set it and stood back.

Nate moved forward and opened the door to lead them through.

\---

They came out in an alley next to a big black van.

“So where is this computer specialist?” Sophie asked.

“In there,” Parker responded pointing at the van.

“Seriously?” came from Eliot

“I didn’t think someone whose disappearance would be noticed would be a good idea.”

“Who exactly are we here for?” Nate asked.

“He’s a hacker named Alec Hardison.”


	3. Chapter 2

Hardison was sitting in Lucille after leaving a job that had gone spectacularly wrong. This Dubenich fellow should have gotten better people if he had wanted it to go well (Hardison fully believed that he was the only competent one there).

He was just finishing covering his tracks when he heard a commotion outside the back of the van. He debated just getting into the front and running but he had no clue who they were. So, he pulled up an external mic and listened.

“Who exactly are we here for?” a man's voice came through. He had a slight British accent that sounded a bit off to Hardison (not that he knew much about British accents other than from Doctor Who).

“He’s a hacker named Alec Hardison.” a woman’s voice responded. She had a standard American accent (maybe too standard).

“Damn,” Hardison muttered and hurried to get to the front of Lucille to getaway.

He slipped on a gummy frog bag and crashed to the floor.

“I believe he knows we are here,” another British voice said, this time a woman’s.

Hardison sighed and hoped that these weren't people here to harm him. He tried to think of who he had pissed off recently. Maybe Dubenich hired guns to off them after the job. But that didn’t make sense. That just left more people who knew something was up.

Some attempted to open the backdoor of Lucille with no success due to it being locked. Hardison felt some relief at that.

“Get out of the way,” the first woman said.

“Can you even get through that?” a man with an accent Hardison had never heard asked.

“Probably. Maybe. Don’t know. But maybe a threat to the van will get him to open it on his own.”

It did. Hardison threw the door open and saw four people. One for each voice. Something was definitely off about these people. Their posture was all wrong (except one of the women) to the point that even Hardison could see it. Their clothes were perfectly up to the current fashion but looked brand new. There was probably more he was missing.

The man who was standing farther away spoke.

“Mr. Hardison we need to speak with you about a job.”

It was the British man.

\---

“You have got to be kidding me. Time travel doesn’t exist. Y’all are crazy,” Hardison rambled.

He knew he was rambling but this was too much. Four people come to him and try to tell him that they messed up time and need his help. Why would they even need him? Yes, he was the best hacker, but what would time travelers need a hacker for?

“You need to get out of here before I do something you will regret,” he continued.

“Like what?” Eliot, the one who tried to open the door, said (at least they gave him names even if they were fake).

“Stop it, Eliot. We need his help,” Sophie, the British woman, said.

“Why? What use could you have for a hacker? Don’t you have people for this?” Hardison asked rapid-fire.

“We need someone faster than them. As for a hacker, I believe Parker needs to be the one to answer that,” Nate told him (seriously that accent was off).

“His record was the most trustworthy. And nobody will miss him,” Parker stated.

“Really? The criminal was the most trustworthy one?” Eliot said with a raised eyebrow.

“The pile was for a search for a new member of TNG4” she shot back. “All the rest were government.”

Parker had somehow managed to hang upside down from the back of the driver’s seat. Eliot was next to her (but upright). Nate had chosen to sit on one of the seats that Hardison only kept in Lucille for the rare occasion that he had guests. Sophie stood outside the open backdoor claiming there was no room.

Then it hit him.

“Nobody will miss me?!” he exclaimed. “People will miss me.”

“Your file didn’t mention anyone,” Parker said.

“Well, my Nana for one. And do you have to be like that?” he said gesturing to her odd position.

“Don’t try. It never works,” Nate sighed. “You get used to it.”

“There wasn’t a grandmother in your file,” Parker said accusingly. “How would you hide her?”

“She’s actually my foster mom.”

“Why would you want to stay in touch with her?” Parker frowned.

“Because she raised me.”

“Foster homes are just like orphanages. They lock you up and don’t give you what you need.”

Parker seemed to be getting distressed and the others were getting worried looks.

Before anyone could speak the sound of sirens came blasting from nearby.

Hardison scrambled to get back to his computer and looked at the screens.

“Dammit.”

He was probably going to regret this.

“You have a fast way out of here?”

“Yes-” Nate started.

“Let’s go.”

Hardison typed in the commands that he never wanted to.

“You were a good van, Lucille,” he whispered.

And she was dead.

He hopped out the back and the other three inside followed (somehow Parker was first).

Sophie had moved to a door on the side of the alley and opened it to head in. Hardison couldn’t see what was through it but he followed her.


	4. Chapter 3

There was a moment where Hardison felt as though he was walking through a membrane and then he stumbled out.

And into an office (that shouldn’t have been there). With three desks.

“I thought there were four of you?” Hardison asked.

“Oh, this isn’t ours. We had to use someone else’s,” Sophie replied.

“Why?”

“The same reason we need you.”

He still hadn’t gotten what exactly they wanted him to do yet. The whole time travel thing had gotten in the way. He opened his mouth to ask (might as well since they obviously weren't completely crazy).

Then the other three came through the door.

Sophie had been standing next to a table and she did something with the device sitting on it. It looked like some sort of steampunk prop to Hardison. The door they had just come through flashed and was still.

“We should get back to the office,” Nate said.

“Before someone catches us,” added Eliot.

“What happens if we are caught?” Hardison asked nervously.

“You will get your memory wiped and we will get scolded most likely,” Parker said bouncing past to the other door in the office.

“Wha-” Hardison sputtered. 

“If that happens you will go back to where we got you and you will never know what happened. It won’t hurt you,” Sophie tried to reassure.

“That is not helping,” Hardison said.

He felt as though he was going to hyperventilate.

“You two are not helping,” Nate said pinching his brow. “Let’s get going.

By then Parker had made it to the door and inspected outside for people (he thought that’s what she was doing).

“It’s clear. Let’s go,” she said.

Parker headed out with Eliot close behind. Sophie gestured for Hardison to go and Nate came out right behind him. Then Sophie followed and locked the door behind her.

They were then in a hall that could have been in any office building. There were five office doors on each side and three bathrooms at one end. At the other end a door labeled “Concourse 3” waited. And that was where they were heading.

Hardison stopped dead in his tracks.

“Hold up. Won’t there be a lot of people there? That means getting caught. I thought we were trying to not get caught,” Hardison said quickly.

“It’s the only way back to our office,” Eliot said.

“Except the vents,” Parker piped in.

“Uh,” Hardison started.

“We are not making our guest climb through the vents, Paker,” Sophie scolded gently.

“Once in the main areas on our way to our office, nobody will question a new person with us. It is not uncommon for extra people to be brought in on a case by case basis,” Nate said helpfully. “We just didn’t get proper authorization for this.”

Nate glared at the other three and then sighed.

“Alright then,” Hardison said.

He still wasn’t fully convinced but he didn’t have any better options (except memory wiping, which wasn’t really a better option). So he started moving again.

They got to the end and headed through the door to the concourse. Parker was still leading the way but Sophie and Eliot had swapped places so that Sophie was just ahead of Hardison.

Hardison stopped again on the other side of the door.

He didn’t know what he had expected but it wasn’t this. They had stepped into a room larger than any Hardison had ever been in. The door they had come out of was on a large balcony that stretched around in a giant circle. He walked over to the edge (which was at least 15 feet) and looked around. They were on the fifth or sixth floor up and there were double that above them. On the opposite side of the floor he could see the shapes of people but couldn’t tell anything else about them.

“New member or consultant?” a voice said jarring Hardison out of his amazement.

He turned and saw a team standing there. If Hardison hadn’t known better he would have thought they were a team of the sort he sometimes worked with (he was basing this on body language). They were all wearing clothes that Hardison thought looked similar to some Korean fashions he had seen pictures of.

“That is as yet undecided,” Nate responded.

The man who had spoken smiled and led his team off.

Hardison looked at the team he was with. Parker was watching the retreating backs cautiously.

Sophie saw him looking at Parker and spoke.

“She can get competitive. The thief from LCA19 is the one who matches her in skill best,” she supplied.

“I get that,” Hardison said.

“Let’s keep moving. We need to get to concourse 7,” Eliot said.

They headed towards the door labeled for the staircase. At the look on Hardison’s face, Parker laughed.

“There’s bridges on every fifth floor,” she said.

The stairs did not match the office aesthetic at all. Spiral stairs wound their way up the stairwell from the first floor to the top. Not the square spirals that many buildings had but true spirals that looked straight out of a fairy tale.

“Wow,” Hardison breathed out.

Sophie smiled from next to him but said nothing.

Down they went to the fifth floor and back out onto another balcony. And straight into another team rushing by.

“Is that-” Hardison didn’t get to finish his question before Eliot broke in.

“Doppelgangers exist. His name’s Jacob.”

“ANX4. Wild bunch of people. Always rushing about,” Nate said moving past them to take the lead.

The went about a third of the way around the floor before reaching a door that said “Concourse 4”. Through they went and again Hardison stopped (he should stop stopping, it was taking a lot of time).

The bridge wasn’t overly big like the concourse but it was glass. All glass. Including the floor.

“I am not walking across that,” he said.

“It’s completely safe,” Sophie said calmly.

“None of these have broken. TOS3 came up with a whole new material for them,” said Parker running and doing a cartwheel (much to the dismay of Nate).

“What material?” Hardison asked.

“Transparent aluminum,” said Eliot. “Don’t ask us to explain it. If you have to know you can ask them yourself later.”

So yet again they started walking. Halfway across a pair dressed in very 90s (1990s that is) suits passed them and Hardison couldn’t help but overhear them.

“Come on, we time travel as our jobs. Why are aliens too far?” the man asked.

Hardison didn’t hear the woman’s response.

“Don’t get involved in that argument. XF2 is always having it,” warned Nate.

The rest of the journey to concourse 7 went much the same way. They would come upon something that would stop Hardison in his tracks and one or more of LV3 would have to explain it to him (they nearly had to drag him away from SG5’s experimental gate in one of the halls). As well there were a few more encounters with other teams (none to note although, BBL5 took a while to get away from).

Upon entering concourse 7, Hardison wanted to stop (but didn’t for once). Instead of the standard twentieth-century office or futuristic twenty-first century and beyond designs of concourses 3 through 6, concourse 7 seven had a distinctly historical feel. It was all wood paneling and warm colors. He noticed upon entering that most of the team noticeably relaxed (except Sophie who kept her calm exterior).

“Our office is on the eighth floor,” Nate told him. “So we have a few floors to walk up.”

“Unless you want to use my rig,” Parker said excitedly.

“Rig?” Hardison questioned.

Eliot sighed.

“My rig to move between floors,” Parker said pointing to some ropes hanging in the open center of the concourse.

Hardison had no idea what to say. There was no way he was going near those but she seemed so excited to share her rig with him.

“Not now Parker,” Sophie said (rescuing him). “We don’t know his skill with those and do not have time to teach him.”

“That’s true,” Parker said face falling a bit. Then she brightened. “Maybe I can show you later. See you in the office.”

Hardison didn’t have time to respond before she was moving over to her rig and Eliot was leading the rest to a staircase.

Up the stairs they went and out onto the balcony of the eighth floor. 

And then, Hardison tripped on something and fell to the floor. When he looked back at what he tripped on he saw a small robot on its side. It beeped at him (with what Hardison could only describe in annoyance).

Two men came running up to them.

“Hey, thanks. We couldn’t catch up with him,” said the first one.

“Yes, because someone couldn’t help but mess with it,” the other said glaring at the first.

“It was just sitting there. I thought I could make it work better.”

“Fargo, how many times do I have to tell you not to touch them.”

“Uhhh. Wait you’re new, aren’t you?” Fargo asked.

“Yes,” Hardison said (still on the floor).

“Well if you’re going to be with LV3 you will probably need some tech help,” the one who still didn’t have a name said. “If you need it we can help. EK14 in hall 1 on this floor. Ask for Zane.”

He then helped Hardison stand.

“Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind.”

The two men collected their robot and walked off.

Hardison wondered why the team hadn’t asked for their help instead of taking him.

“Self-absorbed pests,” muttered Eliot.

And that must be why. Hardison did not say anything.

They got to the office and found Parker sitting on the table in the middle of the room. In addition to the table, there was an old Victorian looking desk and another more modern one with a computer on it. The computer looked brand new (both in age and in Hardison’s modern tech specs). There was also another door like the one that they had entered the other office through from the alley directly next to the computer.

“I guess that is what you need help with,” Hardison said gesturing to the computer.

“Yes, it is,” Nate said. “We did something wrong and don’t know how to fix it.”

“Let me take a look,” Hardison said and got down to work.


	5. Chapter 4

“Well, I figured out what went wrong,” Hardison said looking up from the computer for the first time.

“What was it?” Sophie asked.

“The long or short answer?”

She paused for a moment.

“Short please.”

“You were using the wrong inputs. Or more the right input in the wrong places,” he said. “The instructions were not clear unless the person using them has been working with computers for years in the proper language.”

“So, R&D screwed us over as usual,” Eliot grumbled.

“Yep.”

“So can you fix it?” Nate asked.

“I already fixed the program to make it usable by everyday people. But you are going to have to fix the mix-ups on your own,” Hardison informed him.

“Great,” Nate said.

“Well, this is going to take the next month or more,” Sophie said.

“Why? There’s only a bit more than a dozen of them. Even at one a day that’s a couple of weeks,” Hardison commented.

“Because we have to go to the messed-up time, then find the problem, and get things put to order,” Parker said. “And finding problems take a long time.”

“You don’t have a way to track them once on the ground?”

“No, we just have the files,” said Nate.

“Well that’s unacceptable,” Hardison said and stood up.

“Where are you going?” asked Eliot.

“To invade someone’s lab.”

\---

The next day Hardison made it back to LV3’s office with two devices. They looked much like the tricorders from Star Trek (aka Hardison’s first geeky love) and worked in a similar way.

It had taken the rest of the previous day and all night to build them. And the help of more than just one team’s lab. EK14 had been his first stop and they had been able to give him most of the data he needed and more places to look. After trips to MCU10 and VOY21, he had the data and materials. But it took a trip to JL16 to get the whole thing assembled.

He walked into LV3’s office and set them on the table.

“Here. These should track time disturbances on the ground,” he stated.

“That was fast,” commented Eliot.

“This is what I do,” Hardison retorted. Then corrected, “And I had help.”

“How do they work?” asked Parker.

“They track the same disturbances that the system you get the files from does. They just do it from a single point in the same time instead of from an outside one,” Hardison explained.

“Show me how to use them,” Parker demanded.

Hardison did show her. And the rest of his team (when did they become his team he wondered?). But only Parker and Sophie truly mastered them.

“Since we have two trackers we can work on two files at once,” said Nate. “So we will break into smaller teams. If either team needs more help come back here and get it.”

\---

The first way that they split was Nate and Eliot with Hardison and Sophie and Parker together. Sophie and Parker went to the twenty-first-century. Hardison set the door for them and after set it for his mini-team.

They went to the old American west (which had uncomfortable costumes).

After heading through the door they were behind a building with no one in sight. Hardison pulled out the tracking device and used it to get the direction they needed to go.

“This way,” he said starting to walk.

They walked for a while before hearing a large commotion. After a shared look, they took off at a much faster pace towards that.

It turned out to be the right decision. When they got to the source of the noise all three of them stopped dead in their tracks. There was a group of Roman soldiers standing in a face-off with a group of cowboys.

“What do we do about this?” Hardison asked.

“Just wait,” said Eliot, “and watch.”

They stood and watched as Nate walked in between the two groups of angry men. And then he started to speak.

Hardison had never seen anything like it. The man became the epitome of annoying. The kind that transcends all logic and apparently barriers of time (Hardison did not know how there was no language barrier but he was not going to question that at this junction.

Within a few minutes, Nate had convinced (or just annoyed) the cowboys into letting him deal with the Romans.

As the cowboys walked off Eliot followed and appeared to ask a few questions. He then pulled another device out and flashed a light into the cowboys’ eyes. Then Eliot came back over to where Hardison was.

“What was that?” Hardison asked.

“Remember when we mentioned memory wiping? Well, this is a portable version,” Eliot told him.

“Why doesn’t it affect you?”

“there’s a blocking field built into our clothes. That’s also why it didn’t affect you. MIB4 makes the memory wipers and the costume department makes the clothes.”

Hardison made a mental note to talk to that team.

In the time it had taken for the exchange with the cowboys, Nate had managed to get the Romans to follow them. They led them back to the door where they had come in and they went through.

LV3’s office was not big enough to really hold all the people now in it, so Hardison set the door to where the Romans should have been quickly. Then as each went through the door Eliot or Nate flashed them to wipe their memories.

After they had all gone through Nate picked up the next few files. Eliot sat down and began filling out some paperwork. And Hardison got the door set back to where Parker and Sophie were. He then started improving the computer interface even more to hopefully make it useable for Eliot and Nate (how were they that bad at it?).

The door flashed and Parker came through. She was followed by a samurai and then Sophie. Parker and Sophie were a bit worse for wear.

“Just set the door to where he belongs,” Sophie said tiredly.

“Wha-” Hardison started.

“He was at New York Fashion Week,” said Sophie

\---

Due to the limited time constraints of the Titanic sinking they all went there (and there was something about a time travel agency having time constraints that amused Hardison). Only to find Galileo Galilei as the disturbance in time. He took less convincing than Hardison expected (probably because of the sinking ship thing). So, they got him back quickly and because of the chaos, no memory wiping on time was needed.

\---

Hardison flat out refused to go anywhere near the black death. He did not care that they had more tech to keep him safe he was not going. So, Sophie stayed with him while the other three went. And came back with a group of goths (the 1990s kind not the fourth-century germanic people).

\---

And on it went. They would split into different groups (or on occasion all of them) and would go into some time to fix what had gone wrong. Sometimes they even had to get help from other teams. After the few weeks it took (some were longer than the first few) they all reconvened to celebrate finishing.

As the celebration wound down Hardison realized something.

“What happens to me now? I’m not supposed to even be here.”

He feared they would just send him back. Or even worse take his memory and leave him. He didn’t want to leave. Working with LV3 felt more right and like home than anything else ever had. 

“I’m not sure,” Nate said. “I don’t know of a tempory consultant that stayed this long.”

“He’s been here longer than I was before they assigned me to my first team,” said Sophie to Nate. She continued to Hardison, “And you have the bonus of multiple other teams having worked alongside other teams.”

Nate gave Sophie a surprised look.

“You came uninvited?”

“That’s not important now. Hardison staying is,” she responded.

“You’ve already decided that for him. Have you?” Eliot said.

“Well, he seems worried about leaving.”

“You could ask what he wants.”

“Well?” Sophie said with a pointed look at Hardison.

“I would like to stay. But only if it won’t cause problems,” he said.

“There will be less overall if you stay,” said Nate. “It’s just convincing the higher-ups.”

“Use form XHU-2941,” Parker pitched in from her vantage point in the vents. “That’s what Archie used when he found me.”

Nate looked at her and left the office.

A few quiet minutes later he returned with a stack of papers a quarter-inch thick.

“It seems I have a lot of paperwork to get done. So, please be quiet,” he said.


	6. Epilogue

He was a hacker from the twenty-first century. He was on the list of candidates for potential agents. Then a team came and brought him to the Ministry. They kept him long enough that he became an unofficial member of said team.

Taking him away and erasing his memories would have caused too many problems with the team so he was allowed to stay. With any other team, he would have been sent on his way.

When offered the name change he turned it down.

His name was Alec Hardison.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! Comments are always welcome.
> 
> The next chapter is just a list of all the teams mentioned and where they are from.
> 
> (you can find me on tumblr at theredshirtsarecoming)


	7. List of Cameos

1\. LV3 - The Leverage team of course (not a cameo but I felt the need to put it here)

2\. WH13 - Warehouse 13

3\. LB1 - The Librarian, in my head this is Judson, Charlene, and Ray

4\. TNG4 - Star Trek: The Next Generation, the person they were searching for the team was Geordi

5\. LCA19 - Leverage Con Artists because how could I not

6\. ANX4 - The Librarians Annex team, basically everyone from the show

7\. TOS3 - Star Trek: The Original Series, transparent aluminum is from the fourth movie

8\. XF2 - The X-Files

9\. SG5 - Star Gate

10\. BBL5 - Babalon 5

11\. EK14 - Eureka

12\. MCU10 - Marvel Cinematic Universe

13\. VOY21 - Star Trek: Voyager

14\. JL16 - The Justice League

15\. MIB4 - The Men In Black

And these are just the ones that made it in


End file.
